From karting novice to race car driver

Shenington Superprix

June 23, 2010

Despite showing great speed throughout practice, Sam’s weekend came to a crashing halt – literally – in Heat 1 when his race engine seized mid-race.

Sam ran strongly in practice

Following a successful outing last week at the East Anglian Trophy Meeting at Kimbolton, Sam ran strongly through all the practice sessions in preparation for the Shenington Superprix. Modifications to kart setup were needed to adjust to the specific characteristic’s of the fast Shenington circuit as it reacted differently to the dry setup we had used so successfully at Kimbolton, but Sams pace was still good and we had high hopes of a reasonable finish.

Format

With a field of 32 the format was for each driver to race 3 out of 4 heats. The bottom 6 compete in a B final with the top 4 of the B Final joining the back of the A final.

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Heats

Sam got up to 5th in heat 2 before the crash

Sam’s draw enabled him to skip the first Junior TKM Heat so we lined up on the grid for Heat 2 in P13. As the race started we avoided the usual carnage on the first lap and made up a couple of places on the first lap. The progress continued with a couple of scalps each lap as Sam made good progress through the field and found himself in a relatively safe 5th position by lap 5. In clean air, chasing the back of 4th place Tom Owen, Sam entered the Cafe Corner complex to start lap 6.

“Suddenly the engine died as I got back on the power through Cafe Corner. Then in an instant the kart went into a spin as the rear wheels locked when the engine seized [ it’s the effect of abruptly pulling the handbrake up in a car – Dad ]. I was stopped in the middle of the track just on the exit of the corner pointing in the wrong direction. Then all I remember was a bang.”

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Kart damage was extensive

Observers tell us 3 or 4 drivers avoided Sam before Will Shaw arrived at full race speed.

“I can’t remember exactly what happened but all of a sudden I was scraping along the ground. I remember thinking ‘oh no – I am going to damage my helmet.’ “

From what we have been told, Will hit Sam head on and launched our boy out of his kart and onto the track. Will sustained a leg injury. Then Jamie Andrews arrived and hit the back of Sam’s stricken kart. The impact bending the rear axle to an angle of 30 degrees. All three karts were severely damaged.

Eventually the race was red flagged. All the boys were checked out in the ambulance and released with nothing more than scrapes and bruises.

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The Team all pitched in to help with repairs

Fortunately this was the last race of the day which gave us time to repair and rebuild the kart overnight. One of the great things about MSA karting is the camaraderie within the paddock. We were inundated with offers of help and support from everywhere, including people we didn’t know. Offers of spare helmets, spare chassis, spare engines and parts. We are very grateful to everyone for their concern, support and offers of assistance.

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Special thanks go to Malc England, Les Hughes, Mark Allen, Spellfame and of course the whole DPRS Team who pitched in with their big hammers! ‘J’ and ‘Muscles’ had the axle replaced within minutes. By Sunday morning we were back on the track….

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Starting in 4th on Sunday morning

The rest of the race meeting was about Sam getting back in the saddle. He was clearly battered and bruised and not his usual self on Sunday morning. The replacement engine, freshly rebuilt, was also a little ‘tight’ and so results were not really our priority for the rest of the meeting.

Sam completed the heats without incident albeit somewhat off Saturdays pace. Qualifying for the final in 16th position, Sam brought it home in one piece in 17th. Battered and bruised we live to fight another day.

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Congratulations to Jack for his Novice of the Day, and young Tom for his first Cadet heat win.

I’m so relieved that all three of the boys came away from the accident in one piece although I’m still FURIOUS that no warning flags of any description were displayed until after Sam was lying on the track and William had nearly been run over by 2 more karts as he tried to get off the track whilst I, along with several other spectators, were screaming at the marshall on Cafe to wave a flag of ANY colour!!! I couldn’t believe that she wasn’t even holding a flag in her hand and it took her valuable seconds to sort through her flags to find the yellow…….by which time the only reasonable flag to wave was the red. Will was terribly upset that he might have caused Sam some harm but was following Jamie at the time and neither of them could have known what lay ahead of them as they came off the corner as there were no flags to warn them.

Once again, I’m so pleased that Sam is ok and thankful that none of us have to worry about mending our children.

On a lighter note, sincere congratulations to Sam on his success at Kimbolton. Well deserved indeed and an excellent achievement!

Thanks Trish. I know Will kept apologising but Sam told him there was no need. When you are sitting stationary on the racing line on the exit of a fast corner you are gonna be collected! Someone else mentioned the flags were slow to come out but Sam said it all happened really fast.

Its just a relief they were all OK. I think you guys came off slightly worse than us with the damage to your chassis?

I didnt actually see the incident as I was down at Hanger taking some photographs. All I knew was the red flags were out and Sam had disappeared from 5th place. I just though here we go again – we were upside down last time out at Shenny!